DC capital · 2026

Sunrise and sunset in Washington, District of Columbia

Short answer

Washington gets 14 h 54 min of daylight on June 21 and 9 h 26 min on December 21, 2026. Sunrise is earliest on June 7 at 5:42 AM.
Longest day
14 h 54 min
Shortest day
9 h 26 min

Washington daylight by month, 2026

Average hours of daylight in each month, with the day length on the first and last day and the range of sunrise and sunset clock times. Open a month for every day.

MonthAverageSunriseSunset
January9 h 48 min7:15 AM to 7:27 AM4:56 PM to 5:28 PM
February10 h 46 min6:41 AM to 7:14 AM5:29 PM to 5:59 PM
March11 h 59 min6:31 AM to 7:30 AM6:00 PM to 7:30 PM
April13 h 15 min6:11 AM to 6:52 AM7:31 PM to 7:59 PM
May14 h 19 min5:45 AM to 6:10 AM8:00 PM to 8:27 PM
June14 h 51 min5:42 AM to 5:46 AM8:27 PM to 8:37 PM
July14 h 35 min5:46 AM to 6:08 AM8:20 PM to 8:37 PM
August13 h 38 min6:09 AM to 6:36 AM7:39 PM to 8:19 PM
September12 h 25 min6:37 AM to 7:03 AM6:52 PM to 7:38 PM
October11 h 10 min7:04 AM to 7:34 AM6:08 PM to 6:50 PM
November10 h 04 min6:35 AM to 7:06 AM4:46 PM to 5:07 PM
December9 h 30 min7:07 AM to 7:26 AM4:45 PM to 4:55 PM
Local clock time in Washington. Computed with SunCalc at 38.907° N, 77.037° W.

Longest and shortest days

00:0003:0006:0009:0012:0015:0018:0021:00JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Each column is one day from sunrise to sunset in local clock time. The one-hour steps are the daylight saving time changes.

The longest day in 2026 is June 21 with 14 h 54 min between sunrise at 5:43 AM and sunset at 8:37 PM. The shortest is December 21 with 9 h 26 min. The difference, 5 h 28 min between June 21 and December 21, ranks 32nd largest among the 51 capitals. That is typical for a capital at this latitude.

Earliest sunrise and latest sunset

The earliest sunrise of the year comes on June 7 at 5:42 AM, and the latest sunset on June 21 at 8:37 PM. The latest sunrise falls on October 31 at 7:34 AM, and the earliest sunset on December 4 at 4:45 PM.

Clocks change on March 8 (to EDT) and November 1 (to EST), which moves every clock time by an hour. The earliest sunrise and latest sunset still fall days away from the longest day, because solar noon drifts through the year.

Solar noon and the time zone

On standard time Washington's clocks run 5 hours behind UTC, which matches the meridian at 75° W. The capitol sits at 77.04° W, 2.04° west of it, which puts the sun about 8 minutes behind the zone's clock noon. Solar noon on January 15 is at 12:17 PM and on July 15 at 1:14 PM; the rest of the gap comes from daylight saving time and the equation of time.

Compared with neighboring capitals

Day length depends on latitude, so capitals to the north get longer June days and shorter December days. Annapolis gets about the same June daylight as Washington.

CapitalJune 21December 21
Annapolis, MD14 h 54 min9 h 26 min
Richmond, VA14 h 46 min9 h 34 min
Washington: 14 h 54 min on June 21 and 9 h 26 min on December 21.

Questions people ask

What is the longest day of the year in Washington?

June 21, 2026, with 14 h 54 min of daylight. Sunrise 5:43 AM, sunset 8:37 PM.

What is the shortest day of the year in Washington?

December 21, 2026, with 9 h 26 min of daylight.

When is the earliest sunrise in Washington?

5:42 AM on June 7, 2026.

When is the latest sunset in Washington?

8:37 PM on June 21, 2026.

Sources and data as of

Data as of: computed for 2026 at the stored capitol coordinate, 38.907° N, 77.037° W.

  1. 01SunCalc library (Vladimir Agafonkin), algorithms after Jean Meeus
  2. 02IANA time zone database (clock times and daylight saving rules)

How every number is computed: methodology. Spotted a wrong figure? Report an error.